Another Hollies box set is coming from EMI in the UK with a tentative May release date. "The Clarke, Hicks & Nash Years: The Complete Hollies April 1963-October 1968". Amazon.co.uk says "sign up to be notified" when preordering starts. No word on the contents.

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Added by Linda:



Amazon USA
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004QJL4D8/?tag=imwan-20

Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004QJL4D8/?tag=imwan-21

Great, now that I've spent the last year collecting all the mono/stereo versions of those albums plus some of the singles comps, they decide to do a complete Nash-era box set.

Super fab! I wonder what the mono vs. stereo breakdown will be...

And I want a followup box, too, Clarke-Hicks-Sylvester-Rickfors...

I hope that there's a few rarities for the collector. Checking the sessionography, there's not many unreleased tracks remaining from the Nash years. Perhaps there's roughly a dozen unreleased songs, in unknown states of completion.

Is it wrong that an all Graham Nash, hopefully well done (mono mixes please), low priced Hollies box set excites me more than the Beach Boys Smile box?

Both projects excite me. These groups are some of the greatest vocal harmonizer in 1960's rock. Incredible voices.

You're right. And I know I'll be getting both. It's just that all the drama around Smile for all these years has been too much, and it can never live up to the legend. But those harmonies (for both bands) are sublime.

This will be a "must have" for me. And I like RRoL's idea for a followup box for Clarke-Hicks-Sylvester-Rickfors, too.

The rumor(from someone on the Hoffman forum who claims that a friend has heard reference CD's of the project) is no unreleased studio tracks, but the box includes the unreleased 1968 concert from Lewisham Odeon(of which only one track "Blowin' in The Wind" had ever been released before). This is a professionally recorded live show with Graham Nash. The box set is a combination of mono & stereo. To what extent the set is "Complete" remains to be seen. Obviously, it will have the albums and singles, but will it have the E.P.'s and the miscelaneous tracks that have been released on archival projects over the years? The box seems to follow the same formula that EMI used for the Kevin Ayers & Edgar Broughton Band box sets: get the fans to buy the studio tracks all over again as a means to obtain a previously unreleased concert.

Obviously, we could have hoped for something better.

Still no tracklisting, but it is a 6-CD set. It may be fairly "Complete".

This is now available for preorder on Amazon.uk.

I was going to try to ask about the contents of the box set on the forum at The Hollies' official website, but they have yet to respond with an e-mail granting approval of my application to join their forum. Apparently, the Hollies forum is so severely supervised, that even for those approved to participate in their forum, it can take a month or two after posting a message before it actually appears on the forum, since the moderator(who apparently looks at his computer once every month or two or three) insists on reading each and every post before permitting it to appear. I wonder why the forum's operator is so paranoid. Certainly, if the forum were to operate as most internet forums(including this one) do, then if anyone posted anything that was offensive, that forum's operator could simply delete the message. This apparent policy has resulted in a forum frozen in time(at a standstill) in which new posts from anyone seldom appear, and an actual dialogue between the participants is impossible.

Maybe Al Jardine warned The Hollies about you.

But The Hollies have had few serious internal hostilities or controversies, certainly nothing like The Beach Boys. The only criticism that I would have ever offered on a Hollies forum would be to criticise the unwillingness of The Hollies company("The Hollies Ltd.") to exert more control over what the French "Magic" label does with Hollies music, specifically vinyl-derived bonus tracks, and one album dubbed entirely from a phasey cassette release.....all to avoid paying Abbey Road studios fees for dubs from the master tapes. The Hollies own their recordings starting from the 5th Uk album "For Certain Because" onwards. The material is licensed to EMI, and the license gives EMI the right to sublicense Hollies-owned recordings. The "Magic" label dubs from existing UK or U.S.A. CD's, but where a song has never been released on CD, they dub from vinyl or cassette. The only properly mastered Hollies-related CD released by "Magic" is the 2-CD set of Terry Sylvester solo & Hollies tracks, because Sylvester compiled the set himself from tapes stored at Abbey Road.
Here's one trivia fact: while Graham Nash certainly fell in love with California & the hippie lifestyle, and was frustrated that Uk singles buyers were less than receptive to Nash's attempts to move The Hollies into flower power, there were also business reasons behind Nash's exit. Two-thirds of The Hollies originals during the Nash era were written entirely by Graham Nash, but they were all credited to Clarke/Hicks/Nash. Nash grew to resent having to share the credit and royalties with the others. "King Midas in Reverse", "On A Carousel" and(despite Allan Clarke's claim to have written the middle-eight) "Carrie Anne".....were written by Graham Nash.

This is really cheap at AmazonUK right now (less than 18 lbs). Is there a reason why? Also, aside from the live disc, do I really need this as far as rare tracks go? I could care less about alternate versions/mixes, etc..

Pete,

EMI UK is doing all these 6-CD sets of '60s and '70s artists (there are a lot more coming) as a budget catalogue series. They're not going to be big, lavish box sets, they're supposed to be little packages with 6 discs stuffed into them.

Ah-good to know. I shall pass for now, but I am a big fan of the Hollies 70s/early 80s material (I'm sure I'm in the minority there) and I know EMI did remasters of some of those albums. Which ones did they do, because I've seen some were done by that awful Magic label or something and I will never buy those.

But the concert material in the forthcoming box set is a previously unreleased(except 1 song) 1968 professionally recorded concert with Graham Nash. Also, as for EMI doing inexpensive 6-CD sets, they've also done a series of various artists 6-CD sets covering various styles and eras("80's 12" " "60's Pop") that sell for £7 or £8. Perhaps they think that if they price these low enough, that people won't want to go to the effort and expense(particularly for a 6-CD jewel box) to clone these various artists sets. EMI may be right.

No doubt, the remaining unreleased Hollies studio tracks(there are roughly 30 tracks from 1963-1980) are being saved to be dished up slowly(perhaps on expanded album editions in the future)

As for the French "Magic" label, steer clear of their Hollies & Hollies-related product(excepting the Terry Sylvester 2-CD set compiled by Terry himself). As for their Hollies product(Hollies-owned recordings licensed to EMI and sub-licensed by EMI to "Magic"), Magic dubs from existing UK or U.S.A. CD's, but for tracks that EMI has never mastered for CD, Magic dubs from vinyl or worse(the CD of the rare "Out of The Road" album is entirely dubbed from a phasey cassette release). It would seem that these needless dubs from vinyl or cassette are being done to avoid paying EMI's Abbey Road Studios(who stores the Hollies masters & multitracks) a fee for a dub from the master tapes. "The Hollies Ltd" own the recordings from the 5th Uk album("For Certain Because") onwards.

Incidentally, for many 1960's artists(particularly during the years when 4-track was being used), EMI didn't save the multitracks(they disposed of the Manfred Mann, Peter & Gordon and 1967-68 Pink Floyd multitracks), yet there was a directive(from 1964 onwards) that Abbey Road staff couldn't dispose of Beatles, Hollies or Cliff Richard multitracks. However, in one instance, Abbey Road employees disregarded the directive with respect to Hollies multitracks, and threw away the multitracks for approximately 20 Hollies songs including "Look Through any Window"(the "remix" on "30th Anniversary Collection" achieved a stereo version matching musically with the mono single[eliminating unused "oohs" before the 2nd & 3rd verse, and during the song's ending] by splicing in the instrumental passages from an unreleased stereo mix of an unreleased French language version of the song.) Previous stereo releases of "Look Through Any Window"(as on "The Hollies-20 Golden Greats") included the (intended to be discarded) "oohs"

There are very few remaining unreleased Hollies tracks from the Graham Nash years. As for the backing track-only version of "Marrakesh Express", it is EMI's wish that it remain unreleased.(the compiler of "30th Anniversary Collection" wanted to include it). Former EMI executive Mike Heatley once told me, that excepting an engineer's announcement "Marrakesh Express, Take One", it is otherwise unrecognisable as "Marrakesh Express". Apparently, the song(as we know it now via the Crosby, Stills & Nash version) was shaped into its' finalised form largely by Stephen Stills' arrangement.

Someone on Hoffman's forum has posted the tracklisting. 8 songs from the 1968 Lewisham Odeon concert will be included(7 of the 8 previously unreleased). All 4 of the French language tracks will be included(3 of those 4 previously unreleased). The two Italian Language tracks("Non Prego Per Me" & "Devi Avere Fiducia in Me") will make their stereo debut. The tracks exclusive to the E.P.'s will be included, as will those Nash-era tracks which debuted on the 1985 Music For Pleasure compilation L.P. "The Hollies"(trivia note: that compilation was offered once on CD, but in australia), "the Hollies at Abbey Road", "30th Anniversary Collection" & "The Long Road Home". Both the 1966 & 1968 versions of "A Taste of Honey" will be included.

Aside from the fact that there are a handful of unreleased tracks that could have been included, my only other complaint, is that the set is a cut and paste of some new masterings, and some 1997,1999 & 2003 masterings,and(based on the 2003 mastering date given), "Like Every Time Before" will again be without the lead guitar.

The only released tracks that I know of that are omitted are "Poison Ivy"(Take 9)(as on the group's first Australian album) and the alternate "Searchin' "(released by error on a 1988 "Compacts For Pleasure" CD "The Hollies"....no relation to the 1985 vinyl "Music For Pleasure" collection, also titled "The Hollies").

I'm expecting that there's going to be more mono tracks on the set than most fans would want(Yes, I understand that EMI prefers the mono versions of the first 3 UK albums. The stereo mixes of the 2nd & 3rd albums didn't get Uk release until 1969). The stereo versions of all of the 1960's albums have already been offered elsewhere on CD, notably on a 1999 UK EMI series that had the first 7 albums(each album complete in its' stereo & mono mixes on one CD)

Oh well, the set does seem to be a good value given its' price. To the general public, this set will be sufficiently "Complete".

You know what I would really like from the Hollies?

The remastered CD version of the original American 'The Hollies Greatest Hits".
Imperial catalog LP-12350.

There have been many hits collections over the years but never this one.

Side 1:

Bus Stop
Pay You Back With interest
Here I Go Again
Tell Me To My Face
I'm Alive
Look Through Any Window

Side 2:

Stop Stop Stop
Whatcha Gonna Do 'Bout It
Just One Look
Memphis
I Can't Let Go
On A Carousel


All in re-channeled stereo, but still fantastic - one of my all time favorite albums.
Gets my motor running every time...

I burned my own version several years ago from different sources and added:

If I Needed Someone
Carrie Anne
King Midas In Reverse
Dear Eloise
Jennifer Eccles

from the later period, but that's pretty much all I really need from the Hollies....

I have all the mono and stereo reissues, box sets etc. but this is still my go-to for them...

Amazon UK has dropped this to 12.99. That's an overwhelming bargain for 159 tracks.

The track listing is on the Amazon UK site
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004QJL4D8/?tag=imwan-21

I've listened to the audio samples on amazon.co.uk, and can report the following. The album "Stay With the Hollies" is presented in stereo, except the title track "Stay" which is the mono version(the stereo & mono mixes had different guitar solos and the mono had additional vocal overdubs). The albums "In The Hollies Style", "Hollies", "Would You Believe" & "Evolution" are presented in mono, as are the 1963 singles & the tracks exclusive to the E.P.'s

The album "For Certain Because"(AKA "Stop Stop Stop") is presented in stereo, albeit inserting Ron Furmanek's 1993 remix of "It's You" instead of the starkly separated 1966 stereo mix. The album "Butterfly is presented in stereo.

The 1964-68 single A-sides are mostly stereo, some original 1960's mixes and some 1993 Ron Furmanek mixes

The songs "It's You", "Yes I Will", "Don't Run and Hide" & "Like Every Time Before" are presented via Ron Furmanek's 1993 mixes, which means that, once again EMI are presenting "Like Every Time Before" with no lead guitar(the lead guitar was added live during mono mixdown and is not available for inclusion in a stereo mix)

The French language tracks are in mono sound. The Italian language tracks are previously unreleased stereo mixes.

"Little Bitty Pretty One" is a previously unreleased mono mix(the song had previously been released only in stereo), and the rare stereo mix of "All The World is Love" makes its' CD debut.

The live tracks(apparently 2-track recordings) are mixed to put the vocals in the center, and the instruments at the left.

A glaringly defective mix of "Dear Eloise"(as on the 1999 stereo/mono UK digipak reissue of the album "Butterfly") is included. In this mix, some of the instruments briefly drop out between 0:39- 0:42 when the group sings the words "Writing a letter to make you feel better".

Oh well...... be prepared to make your own corrected disc, since "Dear Eloise" has appeared(without the defect) on many other UK or U.S.A. CD's. As for the original single mix of "Like Every Time Before", it's on the deleted UK CD "Hollies Rarities". And if you are seeking the stereo mixes of "Little Bitty Pretty One" & "Poison Ivy", they are on an Australian EMI CD "Hollies"(EMI 432005-2)(It's the only CD release of the 1985 Uk EMI/Music For Pleasure album).

If you have a thorough Hollies CD collection, you can create your own version of this box set with all but eight or nine of the songs in stereo. The only ones that have never been released in stereo are "Zip a Dee Doo Dah", "Honey and Wine", "What Kind of Love", "When I'm Not There" and the 4 French language tracks. But you may wish to insert the mono "Like Every Time Before" which has the lead guitar.

Still, a 6-CD set selling at £12.99 from many UK internet dealers is an excellent value. The main criteria being used(by the compiler) to make the stereo/mono decisions is a viewpoint that the instruments left/ vocals right mixes(with no center information) are not deemed to be acceptable stereo. Well, in my opinion the crude stereo mixes sound O.K. through speakers, but not so good through headphones. And, these days, many people ARE listening through headphones.

90% of the set reuses previous masterings, sometimes arbitrarily selected. I would have prefered to have everything newly remastered.